


Zim's Second Christmas

by SpyroForLife



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Christmas, Fluff, M/M, One-Shot, Snow, Wintry, ZaDr, kinda OOC
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-21
Updated: 2012-07-21
Packaged: 2017-11-10 09:37:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/464832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpyroForLife/pseuds/SpyroForLife
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Snow men, snowball fights, snow angels... and the Dib. Maybe Christmas isn't so bad after all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Zim's Second Christmas

      Zim glared out the window of his house at the deadly white flakes drifting down. They looked so harmless and almost serene. If it wasn’t for the fact that they were nothing more than frozen water, which could cause severe burns unless he was prepared. Since he didn’t want to take a paste bath, though, he was staying inside where it was toasty warm and waiting until the snow stopped.

      GIR was outside building a snowman while MiniMoose looked for rocks to use for the facial features. GIR waved at Zim. “Mastah, come outside! Please?” His voice was loud enough that it was easily heard from inside.

      For about the tenth time in the past few minutes, Zim shook his head. “No GIR! The snow can burn me, remember?”

      “Then wear a hoodie!”

      “A hoodie?” Zim hadn’t thought of that. “Computer, my jacket.”

      Computer threw a red, hooded jacket at him. Its left chest pocket was marked with the irken insignia. He pulled it on and zipped it all the way up, then laid his antennae back so he could pull the hood over his head. After putting on his contacts, he opened the door and took a cautious step out. The snow hit his clothes and melted, but he remained quite dry and warm.

      He raised his arms victoriously. “It worked! Zim is amazing!”

      “Look at my snowman!” GIR called, pointing at the finished snowman. It was a fairly accurate sculpture of Zim in his classic ‘victory’ pose, arms raised and head toward the sky. Other than the eyes being rocks, it looked a lot like him.

      “Meep,” MiniMoose added, sticking two sticks into the head to serve as antennae.

      “Hey, not bad.” Zim knelt down in front of it. “It’s a bit too short, though.” He started adding more snow to make it taller. GIR happily joined in, helping him and shaping the snow tunic.

      “What do you know?” a familiar voice said nearby. “Looks like even the space scum is getting into the spirit of Christmas.”

      Zim wheeled around and saw Dib leaning over the low fence, arms crossed over it and a mug of hot chocolate in one hand. His trench coat was buckled around him like a jacket and he had a dark blue scarf wrapped around his neck, with blue earmuffs. His scythe lock was steadily collecting a pile of snow and was starting to droop under the weight. He looked very comfortable in the cold weather and snow, much more used to it than Zim.

      “What are you doing here?” Zim demanded.

      “I was bored,” Dib replied, shrugging. He took a drink of hot chocolate and looked at the yard, which was filled with snow angels, snowmen, and the remains of a snow fight GIR and MiniMoose had had earlier. “Looks like they’ve been enjoying the snow.”

      “Yes, well, I don’t like it.” Zim turned away from Dib and started working on the snow irken again. “I’m only out here because I too am bored.” He gave Dib an annoyed and somewhat confused look. “Why haven’t you been trying to capture me lately?”

      “It’s Christmas time. I happen to like the holidays because I get to spend time with my family. In my opinion, being with Dad and Gaz is much more important than chasing you around and fighting you.” Dib leapt over the fence, an easy feat since he was much taller now than he had been when Zim first came here. He landed softly, not a single drop of hot chocolate spilled nor a hair out of place. “I kinda feel sorry for you. You don’t have a family to spend the holidays with.”

      “Zim doesn’t need a family.”

      “No… but everyone needs friends.”

      “I don’t,” Zim tried to protest.

      “Don’t lie. You’d go mad without some kind of companionship. You might not want to admit it, but without GIR and MiniMoose, you’d probably go insane. You like having them around.”

      As he spoke, GIR ran over to Zim and gave him his usual hug, clinging to him tightly.

      “Ah! Stop hugging me!” Zim tried to push him away.

      “See? He loves you, but you never once thank him for all the help he’s given you.”

      “Help? He doesn’t help! He ruins everything!” Zim was still struggling with the robot in the dog suit, unable to get the stubby but strong arms off of him.

      “But at least he tries. He never abandons you. Ever.” Dib blew steam off of his drink before taking a sip. He shook his head, making the snow go flying from his hair. “Unlike your own kind,” he added.

      “What? My kind has not abandoned me!” Zim shouted, managing to push GIR off. The robot went back to playing in the snow.

      “Oh, come on. You’ve been here for two years. Don’t you think the armada should have been here by now?”

      “Eh? Oh. Well they’re probably just… running late.” Zim turned away and kicked at a pile of snow, not wanting to admit that he too had been wondering why the armada hadn’t gotten here yet. This planet was totally unaware of what he was, except for Dib and Gaz. No one believed Dib and Gaz didn’t care. It was totally defenseless, as he told his Tallest many times in his reports. So why didn’t they come?

      “They’re not coming, Zim. Just give up. They’ve obviously left you here.” Dib put his mug down and walked further into the yard. “But don’t think you’re alone, here. You have your robots. And well… no one should be alone on Christmas.” Without thinking, he embraced the small alien, pulling him against his chest.

      Zim squirmed, trying to get away from the arms that dared invade his personal space. Then he realized they were warm. Warm, comfortable, gentle… caring. He slowly relaxed, eyes drifting closed. No one’s ever hugged him like this before. No one but GIR. And those metallic arms were ice cold and seemed to want to squeeze the life out of him, even if their owner hadn’t intended that.

      But Dib’s arms… they were so much better.

      For some reason, the contact had him breaking down and spilling out everything. “You’re right, they don’t care about me… they never have… I always tried to stay strong and tell myself that I was useful, that I was sent here for a reason… I just didn’t want to face the truth… I try my best but nothing ever turns out right! So what do they do? They send me here. To this miserable little planet in the middle of nowhere, populated by stupid monkeys!”

      He felt Dib suddenly stiffen and instantly regretted his choice of words.

      “Not all of them are stupid,” he amended.

      The human hugging him slowly relaxed again. “Think before you speak next time. I know that’s a hard concept to comprehend, but… at least try.”

      “Sure. I could try. But I’m not promising anything.”

      Realizing he was stilled hugging the irken, Dib put him down and backed up, looking a bit embarrassed. “Um… Merry Christmas, then, Zim.”

      Feeling strangely happier at finally getting the truth out of his system, Zim tried to return the smile; but he wasn’t yet used to smiling in a non-evil way and it came out as more of a grimace. “Yeah. Merry Christmas.” He turned back to the snow irken, which was now as tall as him. GIR was working on carving details in with a stick.

      Dib leaned down to pick up his hot chocolate.

      “Oh, and Dib?” Zim asked, looking over his shoulder.

      Dib paused and looked at him, not sure what to expect but feeling strangely hopeful for a reason he couldn’t explain. “What?”

      “Get off my lawn, Earth creature,” Zim said, finally managing to crack a normal grin. He aimed a snowball at Dib’s face and hit him right between the eyes. “Ha! Victory for Zim!”

      “Oh, I see how it is.” Putting his drink down again, Dib rolled up a snowball and threw it back. Zim dodged it.

      “You have to do better than that!”

      “Oh, I plan to.” Dib grabbed a handful of snow and tackled Zim, throwing it into his face.

      “Ah! It burns, it- hey, wait, it doesn’t burn.” Zim seemed absolutely delighted at this discovery.

      “Really?” Dib’s guard was momentarily let down at this unusual observation.

      “But it’s really cold!” he added, swiping his hand across the ground and flinging a huge pile into Dib’s face, making him cough and his eyes water. The ice stung his cheeks fiercely and he pulled back, putting his gloves to his face for warmth.

      Zim got up and laughed loudly. “Ha! Serves you right for daring to throw snow at ZIM! GIR, MiniMoose, get the human!”

      Dib grabbed his drink and ran. The other three chased him with handfuls of snow, chucking it as hard as they could and laughing all the while. Zim decided winter wasn’t that bad after all.


End file.
